Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Singapore went to town last week with the announcement of the appointment, for the first time, of a Malay to head the Republic's Armed Forces.

Colonel Ishak Ismail, a career officer in the SAF, is the first Malay to achieve the rank of Brigadier General.

His promotion was described as marking a milestaone in Malays' efforts to be fully accepted in the military, a contoversial issue ever since it was disclosed in 1987 that the SAF adopted cautious approach in placing them in key positions.

Finally, the island-republic decided to emulate what Malaysia hd been doing even during the days of Malaya - that is to appoint members from the ethnic minority to key positions in the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF). This was and is being done despite the fact that the rank and file are filled by majority Malays.

The Government, has been trying with little success to encourage the participation of more non-Malays, especially the Chinese to join the armed services as a career platform.

The appointment of Ishak as a Brigadier-General or Rear-Admiral (One Star) smacks of 'tokenism", but the move has been heralded by many Singapore admirers as proof of the republic's 'colour-blind' policies as well as that of meritocracy.

Actually the song and dance that Singapore makes of the appointment of a Malay is clearly racist. It is a confession that it had discriminated against the Malays in the past. Recently, even Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (who himself was commander of the SAF) had declared publicly that Singapore was not ready for a non-Chinese Prime Minister.

Now it is window dressing time.

Racists in Malaysia can already be heard shouting in the blogsphere that such an appointment would never be seen in Malaysia.

Well is it? Have they heard of Brig-Gen Baljit Singh, Brig-Gen Huang Chew Siong, Brig-Gen T.Parameswaran, Mej-Gen Gophal Ramdass, First Admiral T.Thiruchandran, Commodore T.Thanabalasingham (Malaysia's first chief of Navy) and Brig-Gen Toh Boon Fook. Then there is Mej-Gen N.Selvarah.

Major-Gen William Stevenson is currently the Army's Inspector-General.

Of course the Defence Ministry may not have tabulated the whole list of top ranking military personnel based on racial background since their participation in the MAF had never been considered a novelty or token.

Unlike in Singapore when such an appointment is made it needed to be announced to the whole world less it was not noticed.

One wonders what is the responsibility of Brig-Gen Ishak Ismail?

But, for the benefit of those with racist tendencies, this following list was tabulated from available public records between 1966 - now;

Saturday, 13 June 2009

I THINK by now many Malaysians would have come to their senses about the unholy alliance in PakatanRakyat.

As days past by, the fiction that PakatanRakyat is a viable alternative to BarisanNasional is slowing unveiling itself, with a helping hand from DAP'sLim Dynasty and ‘King’ Karpal.

Pas president DatukSeriHadiAwang is not only facing unwarranted attacks from Lim&Lim, Karpal and others wannabe politicians but also from within his own party.

The recent PAS muktamar had in fact strengthened the president’s influence in the party but that has given birth to an unprecedented move to topple the president at all costs.

High ranking Pas sources confirmed the existence of a movement within the party, with the blessing of party elder DatukNikAziz, to end Hadi’s reign as president.

The stated reason is because HadiAwang is an Umno stooge and that he would betray Pas, but sources say that reason is actually far from the truth.

It was understood that the spiritual advisor is breaking ties with his president solely because all ‘his boys’ from Kelantan were not voted into as decision makers in the party.

While it was the Erdogans who were conspiring to kill UstazNasharuddin politically, they somehow took their own bullets and were kicked out by party delegates for being rude against the Ulama (scholars).

But now the blame is placed squarely on Hadi and Nasharuddin.

The president and deputy president of Pas are now Umno stooges, in the eyes of NikAziz and his boys.

And, in the eyes of his Pakatan partners, Hadi is said to be fast becoming ‘a humiliation to PakatanRakyat’.

Friday, 5 June 2009

'We believe that the 1Malaysia slogan is not capable of creating a more conducive condition because Umno and BN have their internal problems and this has made them dis-united." – PAS president DatukSeri Abdul HadiAwang in his opening speech at the three-day 55th Pas Muktamar.

Abdul Hadi was just stating the obvious, particularly the part about ‘missing’ unity in BarisanNasional. As the lynchpin, Umno’s unity is paramount to effectively lead the coalition.

Born through sincere friendship and solidarity more than a decade after independence, the BN partnership is undoubtedly experiencing its biggest test for continued survival but, do members of this once unassailable coalition realize this?

It’s not a critical situation, but when you’re in the grave it would be too late for anything and everything.

Hope the true partners in BarisanNasional, will stand up and face the test with the same courage and hard work that prevailed during the early stages of this nation.

Umnoshouldn’t be forced to bear the burden of holding the diverse coalition together while other partners are busy with their very own narrow survival stunts.

Just note the squabbles and conflicting vibes from MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the latest being our PPP.

Do we need this? Are the partners in BN truly aware of the prevailing situation on the ground?

The FACT remains that BN is the social/political force that has brought us thus far in our illustrious journey before/after Independence in 1957 and the subsequent formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

Fact aside the TRUTH is that if the partners in BN fail to buck-up the coalition’s history might just end.